Police: No ID yet on dead body

May 10, 2004

By Kevin Wilson

aw enforcement officials said they will know today the identity of a body found buried in a Portales back yard three days ago.
That information and the cause of death, Portales Police Capt. Lonnie Berry said, would be available this morning after completion of the autopsy.
“There’s not enough (in relation to) dental records to make a positive identification, so we’re going to have to go by fingerprints,” Berry said.
The department is unwilling to release specific information about the investigation — neither confirming nor denying rumors that have surrounded the event — primarily because nobody has been charged in connection with the death.
“(It’s frustrating) for us as well as everybody involved,” Berry said. “We’re holding off on any official notification to anybody.”
The body was found on the 700 block of N. Ave. J Friday afternoon, as officers came to make arrests on unrelated misdemeanor warrants.
Portales Mayor Orlando Ortega, reached Monday night in Albuquerque, opted not to offer an opinion on the matter. If the death is ruled as a homicide, it would be the first since 1998, four years before Ortega was elected as mayor.